Next Space Shuttle Crew Eager to Fly

The seven-astronaut crew of STS-114 are - from front right - Eileen M. Collins ,commander; Wendy B. Lawrence, mission specialist; and James M. Kelly, pilot. In back: Stephen K. Robinson (left), Andrew S. W. Thomas, Charles J. Camarda, and Soichi Noguchi, all mission specialists. Noguchi represents Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). CREDIT:

CAPE CANAVERAL -- The seven astronauts who will return the space shuttle to flight got rock-star treatment as they took a quick spin through Kennedy Space Center on Friday.

Reporters and photographers lined up to meet members of the crew in front of their T-38 planes at the shuttle landing facility.

From now until shuttle Discovery's expected launch in May, the spotlight only will get brighter on this crew, which will carry the hopes of the space program to the increasingly needy International Space Station.

Despite the notoriety Commander Eileen Collins knows well from her stint as the first female shuttle commander in 1999, she said she focuses on one thing: doing her job.

"We have got to dream, and we've got to encourage our children to dream, and who knows what the possibilities could be," she said, adding, "Our flight is a huge step in the continuation of getting people off the Earth and back into space."

The astronauts' visit follows the arrival at KSC of the new external fuel tank, which has been modified to prevent the loss of big foam pieces like the one that doomed Columbia two years ago.

The station has been missing its shuttle lifeline since before the Feb. 1, 2003, accident. Only Russian ships have kept the station supplied with limited food, water and parts, and as Collins put it, "it's time for us to go fly."

"It's important, but it's not absolutely time critical," crewmate Andy Thomas said of the urgency of their flight, "but as we get further into the year, and if we were to be subject to more delays, it would get more and more critical."

The station has been populated by two-man crews since the Columbia accident to stretch out supplies. Their struggles with logistics and repairs are good lessons for future trips to the moon and Mars, Collins said.

"We're going to have to have astronauts that are really good, hands-on mechanical engineering kind of guys and gals that can go in there and fix things," she said, "and we're doing that kind of stuff on the space station right now."

Not only will Collins' crew have to resupply the station; it must do three spacewalks. One will test a repair for heat-protection tiles on the orbiter.

"What we've learned over the last two years is that it doesn't take a large amount of damage to cause a potential catastrophe to happen," said rookie astronaut and heat-protection expert Charlie Camarda.

The repairs NASA is developing should take care of cracks and small holes, he said, even if they won't fix a large hole like the kind that probably allowed the heat of re-entry to destroy Columbia.

The second spacewalk will replace a faulty gyroscope, one of four that keeps the station stable, and the third excursion is for installation of an external stowage platform.

The other astronauts on board will be pilot Jim Kelly; flight engineer Steve Robinson; logistics handler Wendy Lawrence; and first-time flier and spacewalker Soichi Noguchi of Japan.

The crew has several training simulations ahead, and it will be making more trips to Kennedy Space Center as the Discovery flight nears.

"You should see and feel the excitement in these employees here at Kennedy," Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson said in wishing the crew well.

The astronauts returned to Houston on Friday in their T-38s, except for Robinson, who switched seats with Camarda after Camarda's jet sprung an oil leak. Robinson planned to take a commercial flight home, a NASA spokeswoman said.

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